I live in Oxford with Steven H. Simon and our daughter. I am a die-hard Bach fan, enjoy classical music and singing, and travelling to visit my dispersed extended family. 

I have a B.A. in International Relations from the Technische Universität Dresden, an MPhil from Cambridge, and a DPhil from Oxford (Merton College). While a student, I was an ERASMUS student at l'Université de Lausanne, a Fulbright student at Seton Hall University, and a visiting research collaborator at Princeton. 

Prior to my current role at the Blavatnik School of Government, I was an Assistant Professor of Normative Theory at the London School of Economics, from 2015-2017. And from 2017-2023, I was the John G. Winant (Associate until 2022) Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and IR (DPIR) at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College. 

I have been Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed (ELAC) conflict together with Dapo Akande since 2018. I am also a Senior Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute and, in 2024, a visiting Fellow at the Kolleg Forschungsgruppe: International Law, Rise or Decline? in Berlin.